although it seems a little unpractical to see that large drawer as a young boy I remember seeing this particular design in an old town called Maywood. I remember the women used to keep white linens in the top such as cloth napkins and tablecloths only. a piece like this wasnt used as a dresser it was used offset in a corner near the dining room. Just a thought

Good education in this video. As a die maker Ive often wandered about the history of the trade. Now we have CNC programmed electric discard wire machines to cut our extreme punch and die sections plus grinders that run on ball ways and easy to use diamond profile wheel dressers. but seeing antique screws and thinking about the machines and even the sub par steels they had to make the tooling. I would love to see aset of dies that cut the old screws. It had to be like seeing magic to the poor soel who was filing threads to see a strip of wire being cut stamped head and rolling the treads from a strike. Even the old cam driven screw machines had to be awesome in their day. As a kid Ive seen one run just because it was set to run a bolt that was still being used but they had tape reading NC lathes at that time. I get wound up over mechanical history and thoughts run away.

I can quibble about your arguments but in the end you reached the right conclusion. Shaker craftsmen were aware that their designs were being copied contemporaneously but small time and large manufacturers. Even today much of shaker designs popularity is the apparent ease that hobbyist woodworkers and Bostonian accented carpenters can replicate the pieces with powertools. Its the subtle aspects of construction that set the authentic pieces apart. To wit it looks Shaker enough to satisfy a customer and thats the nature of the marketplace.

I enjoyed these two videos immensely. But I glanced down through the comments and see many talking about being educated by these. Now dad gum it Stumpy did you go and educate me without me...well I guess that is the sign of a good teacher when the student enjoys being educated and may not even realize all they learned at the time. I guess....you Da Man Thanks and keep it up.